Summer is here and the festivities keep going. Pajarito Mountain has plenty to do. The season kicked off on June 15 with Summerfest. Organizer Thad Hahn served as “Beer Czar.” Hundreds gathered atop the mountain for food, drink and entertainment. The Kitty Joe Creek Band was the opening band, while Anthony Leon and the Chain entertained the late afternnon crowd. Vendors for beer, wine and spirits around the state were on hand to serve up the crowd. Summerfest has been an annual event since the 1940s.
Hahn said he was glad the recent Thompson Ridge Fire did not hinder the event.
It kicks off summer with the biking and hiking lift that takes people up above 9,000 feet in the Jemez Mountains. The Bike and Hike is every other Saturday throughout the summer. Bus service is available through a partnership between Atomic Transit and Pajarito.
Pajarito Mountain was the venue for the Summer Concert Series, where the Homemade Jamz Blues Band from Tupelo, Miss., took the stage.
Ullrfest starts the autumn season with more Bike and Hike’s on Sept. 28.
Skiesta signals the ski season in the winter. Date for that event is to be announced.

A late substitution was made to Friday’s Summer Concert Series lineup.
It’s still at Ashley Pond. It’s still starting at 7 p.m. It’s still Los Alamos Monitor Night, but the band is quite different.
Playing this Friday is the Parker Millsap Band with Michael Rose featured on stand-up bass.
“Parker Millsap is a young singer-songwriter that’s most likely going to be a big star in the near future,” concert series organizer Russ Gordon said. “He plays Americana-folk-rock-blues-gospel and reminds me of some of the best of this genre. Heroes like Tom Waits, Ray LaMontagne, Ryan Adams, John Mayer, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Keller Williams and then there’s Dylan and Woody Guthrie.”
A sneak peek of Millsap’s music can be found at parkermillsap.com or on YouTube.com.
According to Gordon, Parker’s songs build and build. One of Millsap’s best songs is “Truck Stop Gospel,” which can be found on YouTube.

Author John Nichols said once that he wanted to write “art with a social conscience.”
True to that calling, Nichols plunges fearlessly into difficult issues such as water rights, racial bias or–in the case of his most recent book, “On Top of Spoon Mountain”–man’s degradation of his environment with grace and wit that is an art form in and of itself.
Nichols has written 20 books, including “The Milagro Beanfield War,” “The Sterile Cuckoo,” and “The Wizard of Loneliness.” Nichols also wrote screenplays for all three (Robert Redford directed “The Milagro Beanfield War.”) He also wrote the screenplay for Constantinos Costa-Gravis’ “Missing,” which won an Oscar for Best Screenplay Adaptation.
At his best, Nichols does not hit his readers over the head with his message, but sprinkles it over healthy doses of laughter and spoon feeds it to his readers.
“I get tired of just gloom and doom speeches. I get tired of Armageddon stories, which I’ve written plenty of,” Nichols said, then lists off a few, including “The Magic Journey,” “Nirvana Blues” and “American Blood.”

The 2013 Los Alamos County Summer Concert Series continues Friday with what will be a fantastic concert up at the Pajarito Mountain Ski Area starring the Tupelo, Miss., group, the Homemade Jamz’ Blues Band.
The family band grew up a couple of blocks from the home of Elvis Presley. B.B. King has stated, “In my 87 years, I’ve never seen something musically and so remarkable. These young kids have got energy, talent and do the blues proud with their own flavor. I believe they’ve got a great future ahead.”
The lead singer and guitarist, Ryan Perry started playing guitar when he was nine years old and discovered he had amazingly fast and agile fingers. That was 10 years ago. The bassist is brother Kyle, 17 and sister, Taya, 14 is the drummer.

Franz Joachim has been named General Manager and CEO of New Mexico PBS, KNME-TV, Channel 5.1 (Albuquerque / Santa Fe). He will assume his new position beginning July 1.
Joachim and Karen Mann, director of finance, have been acting as interim co-general managers for the past six months. Previously, Joachim was the director of content for New Mexico PBS.
“I am very excited about this new opportunity to serve New Mexico and our viewers, continuing the high standards that have been set by New Mexico PBS/ KNME-TV over the past 55 years of service,” Joachim said. “This position would not have been offered to me had the hard work and dedication of the staff of New Mexico PBS not continued over the past six months while I’ve been the interim co-general manager along with Karen Mann. The communities of northern and central New Mexico deserve the very best that public broadcasting has to offer, and I look forward to continuing that tradition and to further the mission of education, entertainment and inspiration that are central to the services offered by New Mexico PBS’ four channels, online and across multiple platforms.”

The Los Alamos County Summer Concert Series will continue Friday, although construction around Ashley Pond is underway. Lightnin’ Malcolm starts at 7 p.m. The stage is set up on the grassy area on the west side where the old municipal building stood.
“Delta Blues goes back to the origins of the blues and Lightnin’ Malcolm one of the future greats, a man that understands, respects and loves the genre,” Organizer Russ Gordon said.
Malcolm has been touring the country since his late teens. He has said “music has been on my mind since six or seven, but it took until my teen years to start getting around on my own, and you know, put it into action. I played mostly solo then, singing, playing guitar and kick and snare drums with my feet as a one man band.”
Lightning Malcolm was born in Mississippi, grew up in Missouri and made it back and lives in the Delta.
Malcolm has played with some of the greatest of the Delta singers. He toured with R.L. Burnside. “He played Los Alamos a few years ago with R.L.’s grandson, Cedric. That was a great fundraiser concert for the series that we had at the Blue Window, a fantastic show,” Gordon said.